Dev Aujla explains in GOOD that one should be strategic, but not exclusive, in picking out the out-of-office events that will eventually pay off. Culled from interviews and attendance at events with venture capitalists, he uses their thinking to explain how to spread yourself out, and have more fun doing it. Among the points:

2. Expect to fail

When a venture capitalists invest in ten companies, they expect to lose their money on half of their investments, to break even on two, to make a modest sum on one or two and, hopefully, to have runaway successes on the others. Apply this principle to all the events you attend. By doing so, you will expect less from each event, be more relaxed, build real relationships, and eventually find that one win you need.

I'm definitely a bit too literal in expecting to generate productive leads and contacts at everything I attend with my work hat on. How do you decide which social-business events you attend?